WEATHER WATCH: Multi-millon pound building battered by winds

134928a'The Street closed off after pieces fell off the frontage of the building in the high winds.'Picture by Neil Silk'05/12/13

Published:15:22Thursday 05 December 2013

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While 140mph howling winds batter Britain, Scarborough’s so far largely escaped the wrath of the deadly storm that has already claimed at least one life nationally.

Despite the town waking to grey skies and heavy rainfall, so far only a handful of incidents have been reported to Scarborough’s emergency services.

The Street, Scarborough’s new multi-million pound community hub, has been forced to close for the day after parts of the building were blown off.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue received a call regarding the damage to the Lower Clark Street building at 11.52am, and a neighbours told The Scarborough News that some of the debris had landed in their garden.

A member of staff at the venue said that it had been shut on “health and safety” grounds, and will re-open on Friday December 6 at 8am.

And in Filey, a fire crew was called at 11am after reports of a green house in a garden in a dangerous position.

The fire crew removed the glass roof sheet from the West Road property in order to make the structure safe.

There have also been reports that trees have been knocked over by the high winds, as well as police blocking off a path in West Street after a chimney was reportedly blown off a property.

Transport has also fallen victim to the weather, with Yorkshire Coastliner cancelling all of its busses from Scarborough and Whitby for the rest of the day.

And there are small delays on several train services leaving and departing from Scarborough station today, although elsewhere, commuters are facing severe disruption.

The entire Scottish rail network has been brought to a standstill by the winds, so with that in mind, spare a thought for Sharon Coman.

The Scarborough woman is facing an gruelling night of travelling in order to get to a funeral tomorrow - in the East Coast of Scotland.

The journey was already set to take several hours, but as she left Scarborough station this afternoon, she was unsure if she would make it in time.

“I’m going to try and get to York to meet my mum, but from there I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said.

“We are just going to have to see. They have told me that the tickets will be valid for tomorrow, and if not, we would get a refund, and the staff have been brilliant.

“But it’s a really long journey to start with, so in situations like this, you just have to be an optimist.”

She said she envisions her journey being like “plains, trains and automobiles”, adding: “I’ve brought a bag of food with me just incase, as there’s a chance the station and the train will have ran out of food.